Would Like To Hear From Strain Gauge Owners

Dan-ed, As an engineer, you know far better than I what's going on, but as I understand it, the job of the RIAA equalization network is to UN-"squash" that which was squashed during the conversion of the musical signal into grooves on an LP. So, the squashing has been done a priori. Then, if the RIAA equalization is not up to snuff, there may remain some squashed frequencies and/or artificially enhanced frequencies during playback. That's not a good thing, either. I hear the negative effects when I play some early 50s mono LPs that were not cut to the RIAA curve. (Try listening to the original recordings of Ella and Louis, for example.) I say this as someone who is not as anal as Raul about RIAA but who is trying to see his point. I am completely open-minded as regards the SG cartridge, however. Sorry to add one more post, Frogman.

Hxt1, So I take it that Raul alienates you because of his preference for solid state phono stages (i.e., his own) and his dislike of the Denon DL103, plus the fact that he is a bit dogmatic at least on the former subject. Notwithstanding these factors, I find him to be in general kind and courteous in his remarks, even though he is unwavering in his opinions. Also, he brings to this forum more experience with oddball turntables, tonearms, and cartridges than anyone else I know of, and I enjoy hearing from him on those products that I have never even seen. For example, lots of folks seem to have benefited from Raul's revival of interest in MM cartridges (at least in this tiny world). I feel free to disagree with him on the odd occasion; you should too. To refer to him as an "annoying pest" is a bit over the top, IMO.